OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER accused some of his players of a lack of loyalty as Cardiff's season reached its nadir with this heavy defeat to Crystal Palace.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes some of his players aren't prepared for a relegation scrap[ACTION]

While Jason Puncheon's brace and a goal from ex-Bluebird Joe Ledley moved Tony Pulis's men seven points clear of the bottom three, Cardiff are six points from safety with five games to play.

It has not been lost on Cardiff fans that when owner Vincent Tan's ructions with Malky Mackay kicked off last October, boyhood Bluebirds' fan Pulis was out of work.

But Solskjaer was the man tasked with keeping the Welsh club in the top flight when Mackay was dismissed in December.

Cardiff have eight points out of a possible 39 under the former Manchester United striker, and have conceded 20 goals in their last seven games.

This inept display, where once again Cardiff's defensive failings were ruthlessly exposed, has left angry supporters openly questioning whether he is the right man to lead the club.

For his part the Norwegian is set to wield the axe, after suggesting some of his players had come up short in terms of loyalty and belief.

When asked if his squad had it in them to get Cardiff out of trouble he said: "Most of them. The ones that are going to be involved.

"I am saying the ones I pick will have belief in them, don't worry about that."

The 41-year-old also called into question his players' allegiance to him and the club, and suggested some were not following his tactical instructions.

"The type of character we are looking for is someone with cajones and belief and some leadership and loyalty," he said.

"In training and in games you have plans, you have strategies and you follow them. Okay?"

Solskjaer has tinkered constantly with his formation and starting line-up, swapping between playing, three, four or five at the back. None have proved successful, but he chose not to criticise the quartet of defenders he fielded on this occasion.

Jason Puncheon scored the pick of Palace's goals with a screamer from distance [ACTION]

The ones I pick will have belief in them, don't worry about that

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

"A few times it has worked," he said. "Of course we can't defend naively but if you look at the first half, they didn't have many chances, did they?

"It was a good piece of quality from Puncheon with his movement and finish. That can happen, so you can't fault the defending and shape there really."

Puncheon's opener came shortly after Julian Speroni's only testing save of the afternoon, from a misdirected header by Palace defender Scott Dann.

Ledley was given as much time as he needed to feed Puncheon for the striker to fire a low left-footed shot past David Marshall.

Ledley tapped in the second after Marshall had kept out Marouane Chamakh's free header, before Puncheon rounded matters off by firing home a stunning drive.

"We apologise to the fans that turned up and gave us great support as always. We were very disappointed with it. We know we can perform a lot better than that.

"We've given ourselves a mountain to climb now so we are going to have to dig deep and show a lot more fight and passion."

Palace were rooted to the foot of the table with four points from 11 games when Pulis was appointed. They have since taken 30 points from 21 games.

Striker Cameron Jerome believes the former Stoke boss deserves to be considered for the Manager of the Year award if he completes what had seemed an impossible task by keeping the Eagles in the Premier League.

He said: "He is definitely up there. Jose Mourinho said last week from where we were to where we are now, it speaks for itself.

"It's not necessarily the manager that wins the league, but it's who has done the best job and with the resources he has got, the amount of people that have written him off, he has done an unbelievable job."